The building was commissioned for SOAR Enterprises Ltd, the trading arm of a community-led area regeneration partnership, and Sheffield City Council. The building provides artists’ studios, workshops, and workspaces for start-up enterprises and community organisations along with meeting and conferencing spaces in a flagship centre in Parson Cross, North Sheffield. SOAR Works aims to revitalise and improve the long term social and economic prospects of the local community through supporting and furthering arts and enterprise.

The design of SOAR Works represents the strategic aims and ambitions of the client and multi-headed grant funders. With a fixed capital budget from the outset, 00:/ led their multi-disciplinary subconsultant team, which included responsibility for cost control, from design competition to completion. Deploying the budget strategically to deliver both a landmark building and also affordable workspace, was fundamental to creating something of design excellence. The cantilevered entrance canopy and playful use of dichroic glass behind perforated security shutters on the South facade, provide a highly functional yet surprising statement at the heart of the regeneration area.The steel-framed and steel-clad (inside and out) design builds on Sheffield’s cultural heritage of industry and progressive workspaces.

SOAR Works was led by architects Sarah Hollingworth and David Saxby from 00:/, with the help of their partners Steve Fisher & Austen Cook (Momentum), Philip Boulcott & Michael Perkins (AppleyardsDWB) and Trevor Barrett & Lujun Zhou (pha/Foster & Partners) and their respective teams.